The University's Museum of American Political Life was the place to be on Election Night, Nov. 7. Several hundred students, faculty, staff, administrators, media representatives and people from the community were on hand to watch the returns and celebrate the opening of the exhibition, "The Will of the People? Presidential Campaigns That Made the Nation."

Organizers of the exhibition must be credited with unusual prescience; the exhibition could not have been more timely. With the 2000 presidential election ending in a virtual tie, the outcome was still too close to call when The Observer went to press 10 days later.

As in all of the country and much of the world, the astounding events on Election Night and the days that followed were watched closely by those on campus and discussed energetically, not just in classes but in dorm rooms, offices, Gengras, the Commons, The 1877 Club. Many saw the excruciatingly close vote and its aftermath as a crisis and an indication of a great divide in the country. Others viewed the vitality of the national debate as a healthy exercise of democracy. The dramatic, often contentious, unfolding of history became a supreme civics lesson for all, not only for the students who were voting for the first time in a presidential election but for their professors as well.

Intense interest in the campaign was evident throughout the fall, with a level of student attention to the political process that had not been seen on campus in more than two decades.

Four days before the election, Channel 2, the University's student-run television station, broadcast a live town meeting from the campus television studio. The event, the brainchild of senior Michael Baldyga and junior Ezra Shanken, was organized and run entirely by students. Participating in the forum was an audience of 50 students and a panel that included Connecticut Comptroller Nancy Wyman; Assistant Secretary of the State Tanya Meck; Paul Lewis, news director for WTIC-TV, Channel 61; Guy "Chuck" Colarulli, associate provost and dean of undergraduate studies, who is also associate professor of politics and government; and representatives of the Bush and Gore campaigns.

Martin Luther King III, son of the famed civil rights leader and president of Southern Christian leadership Conference (an organization founded by his father) spoke to an overflow crowd in Gengras Student Union about the future of civil rights in this country just two days after the presidential election.

Among the topics discussed were why 18- to 24-year-olds tend to stay away from the polls, the rising cost of higher education, and violence in schools.

In early October, members of the Government and Law Society joined other students nationwide to give electronic feedback on the presidential and vice-presidential debates.

The Progressive Student Alliance invited Green Party candidate Ralph Nader to campus for a rally in Lincoln Theater on Oct. 4 and, later in the month, Reform Party vice-presidential candidate Ezola Foster spoke to students in Suisman Lounge. The dialogue continued two days after the election as civil rights leader Martin Luther King III discussed the results with several hundred students, faculty and staff.
Launching the political events on campus in September was a roundtable discussion, sponsored by the University's annual Deeds Symposium, with four noted political strategists and pollsters discussing presidential campaigning and the impact of the new forms of electronic media. -DS